The present invention broadly relates to cup lids, and more particularly to hot cup lids of the type normally including a sipping hole or opening therethrough with means for selectively closing and opening the sipping hole.
Such lids, while not limited thereto, are usually formed of an appropriate thermoplastic or synthetic resinous material with the closure for the sipping opening comprising a separately formed slide member received within guides on the lid for sliding movement between the desired open and closed positions.
The prior art discloses many examples of such sliding closures, note for example Waterbury, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,724, issued Oct. 9, 1979; Paramski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,062, issued Aug. 17, 1999; and Wong, U.S. Pat. No. 6,824,003 B1, issued Nov. 30, 2004.
In the prior art, the lid and sliding closure are separately formed or molded items which are necessarily also separately handled until assembled in operative relation with each other at the point of assembly. Thus, as a practical matter, whether at the manufacturer of the individual components or at the distributor, care must be taken to ensure that an equal number of lids and sliding closures be provided for assembly as a complete item. In other words, inventory control will necessarily involve not only an adequate number of lids for the number of cups to be supplied but also an adequate number of sliding closures for the number of lids.